Pro-Environment BLM Director Baca Is Offered New Interior Job

Bureau of Land Management Director Jim Baca, who has pushed for aggressive public land reform, has been offered a new job within the Interior Department, a spokesman acknowledged Thursday.

The disclosure came after environmentalists began inquiring about “rumors” that Baca was being ousted because of his pro-environmental views on land reform, including Western grazing.

Baca, a former state commissioner of public lands in New Mexico and one of the Administration’s most visible Latino appointees, has been widely praised within the environmental movement for his efforts to protect public land in the West from overgrazing and other abuses.

Kevin Sweeney, the Interior Department’s chief spokesman, acknowledged that Baca has been offered a job as deputy to Bob Armstrong, the assistant secretary for land and minerals management.

But Sweeney insisted that it is up to Baca to take the job and that he had not yet responded. “It’s his decision. He’s going to give it some thought,” he said.

Baca could not be reached immediately for comment.

Sweeney emphasized that as deputy assistant secretary, the new director of the BLM as well as directors of the Minerals Management Service and the Office of Surface Mining would report to Baca directly.

The spokesman denied that the shift would be a setback to public land reform efforts. “The fundamental goals haven’t changed and won’t,” he said in an interview.

But several environmentalists, who have closely followed Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt’s efforts at grazing and mining reform, saw it differently.

“It would be a terrible mistake,” if Baca were replaced, said Sierra Club legislative director Debbie Seas. “It would send a very bad signal . . . and could be a major setback to the Administration’s stated land-reform goals.”